Faith plays a vital role in our world. More than 85 per cent of the world's religious and faith leaders have a position of trust and influence in many places. That’s why faith-based organisations are important partners in our work. Our goal is to empower children and communities to break free from poverty for good, and we know we cannot achieve our mission on our own. So we collaborate with a wide range of partners, supporters and others – including people of all faiths and people without any faith – to transform the lives of children, families and communities.
We partner with local churches in appropriate contexts, who help World Vision staff to understand the community and its needs and provide staff and volunteers. We help local churches to strengthen local leadership and equip them with resources and training to carry out our shared mission among the poor and oppressed so that when we leave the community, they are able to continue supporting the community’s transformation for generations to come.
We also work with leaders of other faiths in the communities where we work. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have partnered with Muslim leaders to share important preventative messages in their faith communities. We also equip faith leaders to be a voice for children in the communities were we work. Research in Senegal found that 97% of faith leaders we trained said that, in the past year, they’d actively worked on child-protection issues in their communities – preaching or leading discussions on essential issues like child marriage, birth registration, education, and child health and hygiene.